How To Prompt Like a Director Using Opus 5.5 + Seedance 2.5 (Full Workflow)

2026-10-07 · case-study tutorial · Adil · recording, 17:02 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Video generation & shot direction (also: Assets, references & consistency, Higgsfield platform & ecosystem, Prompting & AI assistants, Cost, credits & plans) · mode: Tutorial · tags: prompts shared, fiction, one creator's experience

Adil builds a 30-second delivery-app commercial with Seedance 2.5 in Cinema Studio, calling it the best video model right now. He casts characters in Soul Cinema, where eight images cost one credit, on gray-background sheets refined in Seedream 5.0 Pro, and builds locations at a three-quarter angle for better camera moves. With prompts written by Claude, he locks seating with a wide keyframe and background landmarks, moves between countries with match cuts and hidden cuts, and fixes a wrong overhead shot with a colour-coded blocking map. The whole ad cost him about 2,100 credits.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The finished delivery-app commercial

00:00:29 — What the video shows; a Cinema Studio project with asset folders

★★ Adil directed a 30-second commercial for a delivery app in Seedance 2.5, with three friends in three countries, and shows the characters, transitions, failed shots and cost. — 00:00:29 · Seedance 2.5, Adil
★★ Adil starts with a new Cinema Studio project and a folder with a subfolder for each asset, saying that two weeks and 400 generations later you will be glad you did. — 00:00:29 · Cinema Studio, Adil · first in: 2026-07-14, I Made a Viral AI Short Film From Scratch — Full Workflow (Seedance 4K + Claude Fable 5)
★★★ Adil calls Soul Cinema his top choice right now for characters, affordable enough to try many options. — 00:00:29 · Soul Cinema, Adil

00:01:09 — Cast consistent characters: Micah, Jenny and Alex

★★ Adil gives Claude the basic concept of each character to get a detailed character-sheet prompt: a closer portrait plus the outfit from the front and the back. — 00:01:09 · Claude, character sheet, Adil · also in: Keep the Same AI Face in Every Shot
★★★ Adil calls a plain gray background on a character sheet a huge hack: face and clothes are easy to see, with no visual noise, and the results are more usable. — 00:01:09 · character sheet, Adil · also in: Keep the Same AI Face in Every Shot
★★ All of Adil's Soul Cinema character-sheet options had the same issue: skin too smooth and lighting a little too harsh for him. — 00:01:38 · Soul Cinema, Adil, character sheet
★★★ Adil edits the chosen character sheet in Seedream 5.0 Pro, which he calls the best model right now for image editing, with a prompt from Claude; the result has softer lighting and visible skin texture. — 00:01:38 · Seedream 5.0, Claude, Adil, character sheet
★★★ With neck-down crops on the other panels of the character sheet, Seedance has only one face to use; Adil calls this a must for consistent characters. — 00:02:05 · character sheet, Seedance 2.5, Adil · also in: Keep the Same AI Face in Every Shot
★ Adil saves the finished sheet as the character Micah, the reference he attaches whenever the scenes are generated. — 00:02:05 · Adil · also in: Keep the Same AI Face in Every Shot
★★★ In Soul Cinema eight images cost only one credit, which Adil says makes it the best tool for exploring character concepts cheaply. — 00:02:34 · Soul Cinema, credit, Adil · also in: Keep the Same AI Face in Every Shot

00:03:15 — Build the apartment, Mexico, Italy and Japan locations

★★★ As on a live-action shoot, Adil uses image references to lock down the lighting, layout and background of a location before generating. — 00:03:31 · Adil
★★★ Adil's pro tip: always make a location at a three-quarter angle; the depth gives the camera movement something to grab onto and gives better video renders than a flat head-on shot. — 00:03:55 · Adil
★★ For the location pass Adil says Soul Cinema always gets the colours, the mood and the rich cinematic feel right. — 00:03:55 · Soul Cinema, Adil
★★ Adil fixes the chosen apartment image before making videos: the foreground cabinet takes too much space and the coffee table must leave room for the delivery bags, so he asks Claude for an edit prompt. — 00:04:21 · Claude, Adil
★★★ Adil uses Seedream 5.0 Pro for location edits because it is good at changing certain details while keeping the lighting and texture of the original. — 00:04:47 · Seedream 5.0, Adil
★★ For the Mexico taqueria Adil needs three clear seats with a plate in front of each and nothing blocking the camera, so he edits the image in Seedream 5.0 Pro with a Claude prompt. — 00:05:32 · Claude, Seedream 5.0, Adil
★★★ Adil puts the food directly into the location references: each friend's seat already has a plate, so the seating is planned and no separate food references are needed. — 00:05:59 · Adil

00:06:34 — Props, extras and a subscribe request

★★ Like the phone that passes between the characters, the delivery packaging gets its own reference, with the Higo's logo facing the camera in the final shot. — 00:06:44
★★★ Adil's shortcut for extras: build the whole group in one reference, as he did with all four musicians in one image. — 00:06:44 · Adil

00:07:15 — Prompt like a director: the Claude skill and the first scene

★★ In the first scene Micah's tap on the app is the cut to the next country, with the camera still moving, and Adil builds that into the prompt. — 00:07:15 · Adil
★★ Adil writes the scene prompts with a prompting skill he built in Claude, loaded through Customize, Skills and the plus button. — 00:07:15 · Claude, Adil · first in: 2026-07-14, I Made a Viral AI Short Film From Scratch — Full Workflow (Seedance 4K + Claude Fable 5)
★★★ Adil attaches the reference images to Claude and labels them with the same names he will use in the prompt. — 00:07:55 · Claude, Adil
★★ Directing the first scene, almost 17 seconds long, means deciding where people sit, when they react and what the camera does. — 00:07:55
★★★ Adil's match cut into Italy: cut on the tap and keep Micah's framing and the camera movement the same, so only the location changes. — 00:08:39 · Adil · also in: How to Hide a Cut in an AI Videos
★★★ Adil calls Seedance 2.5 hands down the best video model right now. — 00:08:39 · Seedance 2.5, Adil
★★ When a prompt is pasted into Cinema Studio, all its references are attached automatically as elements. — 00:08:39 · Cinema Studio, Elements
★★ One Seedance 2.5 take of the first scene, almost 17 seconds, comes to about 200 credits in Cinema Studio. — 00:08:39 · Seedance 2.5, credit, Cinema Studio

00:08:49 — Generate with Seedance 2.5 and stop characters switching seats

★★ In the first take Alex ended up on the sofa next to Micah instead of the beanbag; Adil says his prompt gave Alex the cat but never assigned him a seat. — 00:09:11 · Adil · also in: My AI Actor Kept Sitting in the Wrong Seat (How I Fixed It)
★★★ Adil adds a short wide shot of the whole apartment as the scene's main keyframe: it locks where everyone sits and gives visual anchors, so the seats stay consistent in the close-ups. — 00:09:36 · keyframe, Adil · also in: My AI Actor Kept Sitting in the Wrong Seat (How I Fixed It)
★★★ Adil states each seat explicitly and ties it to a background landmark (skylights behind Micah, shelves behind Jenny, the red lamp behind Alex), which gives him something to check as the camera moves. — 00:09:36 · Adil · also in: My AI Actor Kept Sitting in the Wrong Seat (How I Fixed It)
★★ With the revised prompt in Seedance 2.5, Alex stays on the beanbag beside Micah's sofa even in the close-up. — 00:10:19 · Seedance 2.5 · also in: My AI Actor Kept Sitting in the Wrong Seat (How I Fixed It)
★★ Adil does not use every generated shot: the wide shot only sets the layout for the generation and is left out of the edit, which keeps the strongest moments of each take. — 00:10:19 · Adil · also in: My AI Actor Kept Sitting in the Wrong Seat (How I Fixed It)

00:10:44 — Seamless transitions into Mexico and Japan; the reverse angle

★★ The transition from Italy to Mexico is three beats in one sequence: follow the phone, push towards Alex, then cut on his tap. — 00:10:44
★★★ For the reverse angle at the taqueria, Seedance 2.5 kept putting a wall behind Alex although the prompt mentioned the hills, so Adil had to spell out what that angle shows. — 00:11:45 · Seedance 2.5, Adil
★★★ Adil's fix for the reverse angle: keep the band where it is, put the camera beside the building and point it out toward the valley. — 00:11:45 · Adil
★★★ Adil says anchors are very important in locations, especially for reverse angles: use them to tell the model how to place or move the camera around them. — 00:12:14 · Adil
★★★ For the jump to Japan Adil hides the cut behind a character: the camera slides sideways behind Micah and her back masks the cut. — 00:12:41 · Adil
★★★ Adil cuts the music and brings in Japan's ambient sound first, so the new space is heard before it is revealed. — 00:13:09 · Adil · also in: How to Hide a Cut in an AI Videos
★★★ Adil defines directing as deciding who sits where, how the camera moves, where to hide the transition and when the audio changes, before the final render. — 00:13:09 · Adil

00:13:28 — Fix the overhead shot with a blocking map; the Discord contest

★★★ In the overhead sushi shot Seedance 2.5 set four places for three friends, although the prompt explicitly asked for three. — 00:13:32 · Seedance 2.5 · also in: AI Got the Seating Wrong So I Drew a Map
★★★ Adil gives the video model a map of what belongs where, made in Seedream 5.0 Pro, with every figure colour-coded and each colour mapped to a character in the video prompt. — 00:13:32 · Seedream 5.0, Adil · also in: AI Got the Seating Wrong So I Drew a Map
★★ Higgsfield's blocking skill, shared in the description, helps Claude write the map prompt and explain how to use the map in the video, so positions are clear before credits go on another take. — 00:14:12 · Claude
★★ In the video prompt the map controls placement, the photos bring in the characters and the room, and the colours are only labels. — 00:14:38 · also in: AI Got the Seating Wrong So I Drew a Map
★★ With the map attached to the revised Seedance 2.5 prompt, the overhead take gave exactly the table arrangement Adil wanted. — 00:14:38 · Seedance 2.5, Adil · also in: AI Got the Seating Wrong So I Drew a Map
★★ Higgsfield's Discord community has passed 200,000 members, and Higgsfield is running a contest with a prize pool of 200,000 credits; the details are in the server. — 00:14:38 · Discord

00:15:13 — The 4-second pack shot

★★ Adil's pack shot is one four-second move: start close on the packaging, brand first, then pull back and drop down to the cat with the friends eating behind. — 00:15:26 · pack shot, Adil
★★ Adil describes the eating in detail (lowering the head, taking a bite, chewing) so that something is happening as the camera move stops. — 00:15:55 · Adil
★★★ The whole 30-second delivery app commercial cost Adil around 2,100 credits, including a few rounds of iterations. — 00:15:55 · credit, Adil
★★ Adil says that as you get better at directing these shots, you spend less time and fewer credits on retries. — 00:15:55 · Adil

00:16:20 — What the ad cost and where to start

★★ Adil says a professional live-action production in the US with actors and a full crew can cost tens of thousands of dollars. — 00:16:29 · Adil · also in: Can You Tell This Commercial Is AI? #AIFilmmaking #Shorts
★★ Adil advises starting with one short scene, fixing what is off, building it into a portfolio ad and using it to reach out to a first client. — 00:16:29 · Discord, Adil

Threads in this video

restate · Which image model should be used for keyframes, edits, text and outfits? — Adil calls Soul Cinema his top choice right now for characters, affordable enough to try many options. (00:00:29)
refine · Which image model should be used for keyframes, edits, text and outfits? — Adil edits the chosen character sheet in Seedream 5.0 Pro, which he calls the best model right now for image editing, with a prompt from Claude; the result has softer lighting and visible skin texture. (00:01:38)
restate · How do you keep a character the same across shots? — Adil calls a plain gray background on a character sheet a huge hack: face and clothes are easy to see, with no visual noise, and the results are more usable. (00:01:09)
refine · How do you keep a character the same across shots? — With neck-down crops on the other panels of the character sheet, Seedance has only one face to use; Adil calls this a must for consistent characters. (00:02:05)
refine · How do you spend fewer credits? — In Soul Cinema eight images cost only one credit, which Adil says makes it the best tool for exploring character concepts cheaply. (00:02:34)
restate · How do you spend fewer credits? — Higgsfield's blocking skill, shared in the description, helps Claude write the map prompt and explain how to use the map in the video, so positions are clear before credits go on another take. (00:14:12)
refine · How do you choose the location image for a generated scene? — As on a live-action shoot, Adil uses image references to lock down the lighting, layout and background of a location before generating. (00:03:31)
restate · How do you choose the location image for a generated scene? — Adil's pro tip: always make a location at a three-quarter angle; the depth gives the camera movement something to grab onto and gives better video renders than a flat head-on shot. (00:03:55)
restate · How do you keep a location, product or prop the same across shots? — Adil puts the food directly into the location references: each friend's seat already has a plate, so the seating is planned and no separate food references are needed. (00:05:59)
refine · How do you keep a location, product or prop the same across shots? — Adil gives the video model a map of what belongs where, made in Seedream 5.0 Pro, with every figure colour-coded and each colour mapped to a character in the video prompt. (00:13:32)
restate · Which LLM should be used to write video prompts? — Adil writes the scene prompts with a prompting skill he built in Claude, loaded through Customize, Skills and the plus button. (00:07:15)
restate · How do you write a prompt that a video model follows in every detail? — Adil attaches the reference images to Claude and labels them with the same names he will use in the prompt. (00:07:55)
restate · How do you make a transition between two shots? — Adil's match cut into Italy: cut on the tap and keep Micah's framing and the camera movement the same, so only the location changes. (00:08:39)
refine · How do you make a transition between two shots? — For the jump to Japan Adil hides the cut behind a character: the camera slides sideways behind Micah and her back masks the cut. (00:12:41)
restate · Which video model should be used for realistic people and film shots? — Adil calls Seedance 2.5 hands down the best video model right now. (00:08:39)
refine · What does an AI clip, shot or film cost? — One Seedance 2.5 take of the first scene, almost 17 seconds, comes to about 200 credits in Cinema Studio. (00:08:39)
restate · What does an AI clip, shot or film cost? — The whole 30-second delivery app commercial cost Adil around 2,100 credits, including a few rounds of iterations. (00:15:55)
refine · How do you direct a multi-shot sequence? — Adil adds a short wide shot of the whole apartment as the scene's main keyframe: it locks where everyone sits and gives visual anchors, so the seats stay consistent in the close-ups. (00:09:36)
refine · How do you control where the camera is in a known set? — Adil states each seat explicitly and ties it to a background landmark (skylights behind Micah, shelves behind Jenny, the red lamp behind Alex), which gives him something to check as the camera moves. (00:09:36)
restate · How do you control where the camera is in a known set? — Adil says anchors are very important in locations, especially for reverse angles: use them to tell the model how to place or move the camera around them. (00:12:14)
refine · How do you direct a character's acting in a video prompt? — Adil describes the eating in detail (lowering the head, taking a bite, chewing) so that something is happening as the camera move stops. (00:15:55)
refine · How do you find clients for AI production work? — Adil advises starting with one short scene, fixing what is off, building it into a portfolio ad and using it to reach out to a first client. (00:16:29)
reminder · Higgsfield: enter the Higgsfield Discord 200K Contest by 14 October 2026 (2026) — Higgsfield's Discord community has passed 200,000 members, and Higgsfield is running a contest with a prize pool of 200,000 credits; the details are in the server. (00:14:38)
launched · Higgsfield Discord 200K Contest (2026) — Higgsfield's Discord community has passed 200,000 members, and Higgsfield is running a contest with a prize pool of 200,000 credits; the details are in the server. (00:14:38)

Mentioned

Central: character sheet · Claude · Higo's delivery ad · Seedance 2.5 · Seedream 5.0 · Soul Cinema

Also: Projects: Higgsfield Discord 200K Contest

Organizations: Discord

Concepts: credit · keyframe · Map technique · match cut · pack shot · Skill

Products: Blocking skill · Canvas · Cinema Studio · Elements

Only in the description or credits: Adil · Claude Opus 5.5

Also centred on Higo's delivery ad: Can You Tell This Commercial Is AI? #AIFilmmaking #Shorts

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